Cape Canaveral – The SES-10 telecommunications satellite built by Airbus for the Luxembourg-based operator SES was successfully launched by Falcon 9 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. It will provide replacement and additional capacity for direct-to-home TV broadcasting, enterprise and mobility services to Central and South America, Mexico and the Caribbean.

With a mass at launch of 5,300 kg and spacecraft power of 13 kW, SES-10 is the 45th Eurostar E3000-based spacecraft built. Airbus has designed and manufactured 10 telecommunication satellites for SES which to date have provided more than 70 years’ operations in orbit providing services to SES’s customers across the globe.

SES-10 is designed for a nominal in-orbit life of more than 15 years. Its latest generation Airbus-designed Ku-band payload has a power rating equivalent to 55 transponders. It is equipped with frequency-agile remote-control receivers, increasing the flexibility of the ground control link. The spacecraft will be positioned in orbit at 67 degrees West, in line with an agreement between the Andean Community (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) and SES.

With over 50 years of industrial experience, Airbus has been prime contractor for 115 GEO communications satellites. The company’s communications satellites have together accumulated nearly 1000 years of successful in-orbit operations. Today, satellites designed and built by Airbus are the benchmark for in-orbit reliability and in 2016 the company was the leading GEO telecommunications satellite player in the world with 26 percent market share.